SP, BSP absent from Lok Sabha vote on FDI

Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party played to the script by abstaining from the vote on FDI in multi-brand retail, again triggering speculation about how the Centre manages to hold sway over the UP outfits despite their vociferous opposition on policy issues like foreign retail marts.
SP and BSP walked out before the vote on Wednesday, citing reasons like “communalism” and “dissatisfaction with government reply”. The unanimously anticipated abstention helped the government trump the opposition, casting the spotlight yet again on their complex, even mystifying, equations with the Congress that has seen the three playing allies and opponents with feline ease.
The decision not to vote against FDI was clearly tangential to the vehemence with which Mulayam Singh Yadav and Dara Singh Chauhan (BSP) slammed the policy on foreign retail. However, many in Parliament alleged that it was part of the script that the UP satraps have been forced to follow because of their fear of the CBI and the resultant reluctance to offend the Centre.
CBI is probing cases of alleged corruption against both Mulayam and Mayawati amid deeply entrenched suspicion that its investigations may have been influenced by the Centre’s political imperatives.
Leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj, just before the vote, bluntly stated that Mulayam and Mayawati faced a tough choice of “FDI vs CBI”, implying that the fear of the central agency kept them under the government’s leash. CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta too accused the government of “manoeuvring the majority”. Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajeev Shukla rubbished the charges.
“It means when BJP was in power, they were also running the CBI as per their political whims. Will they accept this? They should think twice before hurling such accusations against parties like SP and BSP,” he said.

However, the theory about the UP outfits being guided by fear of CBI has flown thick and fast every time they have had to vote in Parliament in the last three years. The charge has been fanned by the surprise spectacle of SP and BSP staying loyal to Congress despite bitter political fights like Congress heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi spending three years of UPA-1 targetting then chief minister Mayawati and then going after Samajwadis in the assembly campaign this year.